Many sysadmins face the challenge of managing growing backup archives. While logrotate is traditionally used for log files, its powerful rotation capabilities can be effectively applied to backup files as well.

Logrotate's core functionality - file rotation based on time/size and retention policies - perfectly matches backup management needs. The key configuration parameters that make it suitable:

rotate 5          # Keep 5 backups
daily             # Rotate daily
compress          # Though files are already compressed
missingok         # Don't error if no files exist
notifempty        # Don't rotate empty files

Create a new config file in /etc/logrotate.d/backups:

/root/backup_*.tar.gz {
    daily
    rotate 5
    missingok
    notifempty
    nocreate
    dateext
    dateformat -%Y-%m-%d
    extension .tar.gz
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        # Optional: Any post-rotation commands
    endscript
}

For more complex scenarios, consider these additional parameters:

size 100M         # Rotate when file exceeds 100MB
maxage 30         # Delete files older than 30 days
olddir /backups/archive  # Move old files to different directory
copytruncate      # Useful for applications that keep files open

Always test before deploying:

# Dry run to test configuration
logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.d/backups

# Force rotation (even if not due)
logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.d/backups

For regular execution, add to root's crontab:

0 0 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/backups

While logrotate works well, alternatives exist:

# Simple find command alternative
find /root -name "backup_*.tar.gz" -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

# Using tmpwatch (RHEL/CentOS)
tmpwatch 30d /root

While logrotate is traditionally used for log files, its powerful rotation capabilities make it perfectly suitable for managing backup archives like your .tar.gz files. Here's how to configure it:

/root/backup_*.tar.gz {
    daily
    rotate 5
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
    nocreate
}

The configuration above tells logrotate to:

• Process all .tar.gz files in /root starting with "backup_"
• Check files daily (though rotation only happens when run)
• Keep 5 rotated versions (your requirement)
• compress is already set though your files are compressed - harmless in this case
• missingok prevents errors if no files match the pattern
• nocreate prevents logrotate from creating new empty files

You have two main approaches to implement this:

1. System-wide configuration:

sudo vim /etc/logrotate.d/backups

Add your configuration and save. Logrotate will automatically include this in its daily runs.

2. Custom configuration file with manual execution:

logrotate -vf /path/to/your/config_file

The -v flag enables verbose output, -f forces rotation.

Always test new configurations before deployment:

sudo logrotate --debug /etc/logrotate.d/backups

If you prefer not to use logrotate, consider these bash alternatives:

# Simple keep-last-5 implementation
ls -t /root/backup_*.tar.gz | tail -n +6 | xargs rm -f

# More robust version with checks
find /root -name "backup_*.tar.gz" -type f | \\
sort -r | \\
awk 'NR>5' | \\
xargs -I {} rm -v {}

For automated cleanup, add to root's crontab:

0 3 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/backups